Healthcare diagnostics laboratories use diagnostic instruments for testing and analyzing specimens or samples. Known automated diagnostic analyzers employ multiple carousels and multiple pipetting mechanisms to automatically aspirate liquid from and dispense liquid to different areas in the analyzer to perform diagnostic analysis procedures. The carousels may include a carousel for reaction vessels and a carousel for reagents. By arranging multiple containers on the respective carousels, these known analyzers are capable of conducting multiple assays on multiple test samples as the carousels rotate. These analyzers typically include a pipetting mechanism that aspirates a sample from a sample container and dispenses the sample into one or more reaction vessels on one of the carousels. A robotic device is utilized to individually transport a single sample container at a time to a region near the sample pipetting mechanism for aspiration.